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Baghdad - A group of 46 Indian nurses trapped in Iraq are
to be freed, one of them told AFP on Friday, in a rare piece of positive news
in a crisis threatening "Syria-like chaos".

The nurses, who were working at a hospital in the town of
Tikrit when a swift jihadist-led offensive began last month, are currently
being held in the militant-held city of Mosul.

They are expected to move to the Kurdish regional capital
Arbil where Indian officials are waiting to receive them and fly them home.

The abductions, along with the capture of 39 other Indian
workers in Mosul, have left Indian authorities scrambling to secure their
release and their fate is the first foreign crisis for the new right-wing
government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Some here... they are saying... we will go to
Arbil," Tincy Thomas, one of the nurses, told AFP by telephone, adding
that the group had recently been moved to Mosul from Tikrit, where their ordeal
began on 11 June.

An Indian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said the group were expected later on Friday in Arbil, which is a short drive
from Mosul but has been insulated from the unrest.

The diplomat said that a team of Indian government
officials were waiting to receive them in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, and
arrangements were being made to fly the nurses back to India.

He said that the group was separate from another 39
Indian workers being held in Mosul, Iraq's second-biggest city and the first to
fall in an offensive that has overrun swathes of territory north and west of
Baghdad.

The father of one of the nurses, Chakiriyamthadathil
Joseph from southern Kerala state, reported that five of the women had
sustained minor injuries while being moved from Tikrit to Mosul due to an
explosion.

'Not to worry'

"She told us not to worry and asked us to
pray," Joseph told AFP, saying he had spoken to his daughter on her mobile
phone late on Thursday which she had hidden from her captors.

The father of a second nurse called Shruti S Nair, like
Joseph from the Kottayam district of Kerala, said that his daughter was
unharmed and the women had been treated well.

A spokesperson for the Indian foreign ministry,
confirming the nurses were changing location on Thursday, denied there had been
a bomb blast but said some of them had sustained minor injuries from broken
glass.

Neither of the nurses' fathers was available for comment
after news broke that the women were to be released.

The Indian foreign ministry also declined to comment on
the news.

India estimates that around 120 of its nationals have
been caught up in the unrest in Iraq, where about 10 000 Indian expatriates are
working.

The country's foreign ministry last month announced it
would stop granting its nationals permission to travel to Iraq for work, while
it advised those travelling for other purposes to cancel their plans.

Along with the Indian workers caught up in the violence,
dozens of Turkish nationals have also been seized.

More than 30 Turkish truck drivers were freed on Thursday
after three weeks in captivity, but a separate group of almost 50 Turks seized
in an attack on the Turkish consulate in Mosul last month remain in captivity.

Militants led by the Islamic State jihadist group launched
a lightning offensive on 9 June, and swiftly took control of large chunks of
five provinces, sparking a crisis that has alarmed world leaders.

Iraqi security forces wilted in the face of the initial
onslaught but have since performed more capably, albeit with mixed results in
offensive operations.

More than 2 000 people were killed as a result of last
month's violence, with the militant onslaught displacing hundreds of thousands
of people and putting pressure on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

UN special envoy Nickolay Mladenov has warned that if
Iraq does not follow its constitutional political process, it risks descending
into "Syria-like chaos".

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